Feb. 4, 2010: President Obama has announced a sweeping plan to freeze all non-security discretionary spending beginning in 2011. Administration officials have since worked hard to clarify the proposal, resurrecting the campaign language of the scalpel. But one of NASA's most famed programs received the full axe. As a part of the budget changes, the White House declared it would end NASA's $100 billion plans to send astronauts back to the moon. Constellation, the program on the chopping block, was the pet space project of President George W. Bush. The Obama Administration, which explained that it was not abandoning NASA, plans to redirect funds to rocket research. But some identified this measure as the end of our trips to the moon. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) lamented the move as the "death march for the future of U.S. human space flight," though Congress has yet to approve the cut.

In light of the recent news, TPM looks back at some of the landmark images of our long love affair with our moon. Above, a view of Earth from the Apollo 17 mission in December, 1972.

nasa.gov

During the 1960s, Neil Armstrong worked on the X-15 program as a NASA test pilot. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, is pictured here with the experimental rocket-powered aircraft, which was designed to reach high altitudes and speeds so that engineers could gather data on aircraft and spacecraft design.

Newscom/CNPPhotos

January 1, 1961: Ham, the 3-year-old chimpanzee bound for for the Mecury Redstone suborbital test flight, tries on his spacesuit. The test flight was conducted before the NASA launched its first U.S. astronaut, Alan Shepard, in May, 1961.

nasa.gov

May 25, 1961: Before the joint session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy delivers his famous speech challenging the country to touch down on the moon: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

nasa.gov

October 15, 1965: Scientists at the NASA Langley Research Center test the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator in preparation for the Apollo Project trip.

nasa.gov

December 24, 1968: Astronauts from Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, show pictures of the Earth from a live broadcast in orbit. They end the broadcast reading passages from Genesis.

nasa.gov

July 20, 1969: Launched on July 16th, the famous three man crew of Apollo 11 become the first of the planet's inhabitants to touch down on the lunar soil.

nasa.gov

July 19, 2007: Neil Amstrong became the first man on the moon, delivering his famous line: "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Nearly 40 years later, he recreates the famed first landing, casting his footprint at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

nasa.gov

July 24, 1969: After returning from their epic journey, the astronauts from Apollo 11 are visited by President Richard Nixon. The crew is (from left to right) Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, lunar module pilot.

nasa.gov

November 10, 1969: Charles Conrad Jr., the commander of Apollo 12, walks on the lunar surface.

nasa.gov

April 14, 1970: Astronauts and flight controllers crowd around monitors in NASA's Mission Operations Control Room as the Apollo 13 crew attempted to return with their crippled spacecraft.

nasa.gov

February, 1971: Astronaut Edgar Mitchell stands by the American flag, plotted down on the moon's soil during the Apollo 14 lunar landing.

nasa.gov

July 16, 1971: During the Apollo 15 mission, astronaut James Irwin takes a lunar surface vehicle for a spin.

nasa.gov

August 1, 1971: A vehicle driven by David Scott roams the moon during the Apollo 15 mission.

nasa.gov

April 21, 1972: An astronaut examines the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Apollo 16 mission.

1972: A boulder on the moon dwarfs an Apollo 17 astronaut walking past.

nasa.gov

July 22, 1989: Even as the Cold War space race withered, Americans remained fascinated with NASA's missions to the moon. On the 20th anniversary of the first moon landing, a float moves past in a parade outside the Johnson Space Center. You can see the TPM 40th anniversary tribute to the first moon landing here.

nasa.gov

January 15, 2004: President George W. Bush waves goodbye after delivering a speech at the NASA headquarters outlining an ambitious plan for the agency. The Constellation program aimed to return Americans to the moon by 2020, utilizing the mission as a platform for future trips to Mars.

Newscom/Zumawire

NASA has not been shy about their hopes to return to our lunar surface. The caption for this photo from their website reads: "Twelve people walked on the Moon in an era before cell phones, before hybrid cars, and before laptop computers. It's time to return."

nasa.gov

March 24, 2009: Flanked by school children and Members of Congress, President Obama speaks with astronauts on the International Space Station from the Roosevelt Room.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has long been a supporter of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the policy which prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the military. But his support has been predicated on top military leaders supporting it, especially Colin Powell, the former chairman of the joint chiefs who helped institute the policy in 1993.

And now Powell, in a statement released today, has announced that he fully supports the efforts to repeal DADT.

Will McCain change his mind?

He hasn't spoken about the policy publicly since Powell announced his support, and his spokeswoman did not return a request for comment. So we'll have to wait and see.

After the current chairman of the joint chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, yesterday threw his support behind repealing DADT, a McCain spokeswoman brushed it aside. She said McCain's opposition to a repeal hadn't changed, because Mullen was speaking on his own behalf and not that of the military.

McCain was citing Powell's support for the policy as recently as last week (even though Powell has been saying for years that DADT should be reviewed).

The Obama Administration has adopted the flawed rhetoric of "recidivism" to discuss former Guantanamo detainees who are now said to be engaged in violence, according to a new ABC report, which uses the same problematic language.

The item by ABC's Jake Tapper, titled "Brennan: All Transferred Detainees Who Returned to Terrorism Were Released by Bush, No Recidivism for Those Released by Obama," broke the news of a letter from national security adviser John Brennan to Nancy Pelosi that states:

CNN has a lengthy (for TV) report on the infighting that, as we've detailed, is besetting the Tea Party movement.

The high-note comes when CNN gets on camera the GOP consultants who run the Tea Party Express to answer charges that their "grassroots" Tea Party group is little more than a front for the Republican Party.

RNC Chair Michael Steele and Ex-Dem Rep. and potential NY-Sen candidate Harold Ford Jr. will share the stage Thursday evening at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to "discuss America's future direction."

The event, dubbed "Left, Right, and Forward: On the Future of America" will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday night. According to the school, "the discussion by the two African-American political combatants kicks off UALR's annual Black History Month program."

A new NRSC web video attacks the Democratic candidate for Illinois Senate, Alexi Giannoulias, for his "shady ties." Narrated by a man with a heavy Italian accent, the ad says Giannoulias would "make Tony Soprano proud."

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who is running for Senate from California, released a web video today claiming her Republican primary opponent, former Rep. Tom Campbell, is a "fiscal conservative in name only."

In other words, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The video begins with a pastoral scene of sheep grazing and the pleasant voice of a female narrator describing fiscal conservatives as people "we admire."

Then, one of the sheep -- the Campbell sheep -- rises on a pedestal. The sky turns dark. Lightning strikes. The music becomes ominous. Campbell Sheep falls, tumbling from the pedestal as a deep male voice says, "But one way to fall."

The video then bashes Campbell on deficits, budgets, tax increases and the like. But it returns to the sheep pasture for the climax. Just watch extra closely at the 2:26 mark. And then at 2:38. There are no words:

It's hard to blame people for tuning out the periodic reports of bailed out financial firms still paying huge bonuses to their staff. After all, there's only so much outrage a person can summon over the long haul.

But here's one that's worth a fresh round: AIG, the bailed-out insurance behemoth whose lavish "retention payments" triggered the first round of fury last year, plans more payments this month, worth $100 million, reports the Washington Post. And this week, the employees scheduled to cash in are from the firm's financial products division. That's the unit whose dodgy credit default swaps triggered the billion dollar losses that led to the financial crisis, and subsequent bailout, in the first place.

House Republican leaders are calling on their supporters to send money after last week's extraordinary Q&A session with President Obama. Their recollection of the meeting, as described in the fundraising letters? We stuck it to Obama, so give us some money.

In a fundraising email sent out to the NRCC list today, House Minority Leader John Boehner argued the GOP came out on top in the session "[Obama] finally acknowledged that we'd been offering solutions -- Democrats just haven't listened," Boehner wrote. "You see, we're not just fighting to put the brakes on their jobs-killing agenda - we're showing what a new Republican-led Congress would do differently."

Reports today indicate that Boehner's not the only Republican to see the Q&A as a fundraising opportunity. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) -- the man whose take on the budget Obama called "factually inaccurate" during the session -- said his performance at the Q&A merits some campaign donations, too.